The time to launch the product and then use that product to identify the target customer is gone. Nowadays, putting customers at the center and meeting their needs in the best and fastest way is the key to the success or failure of the business.
This requires businesses to constantly update preferences, adjust products and services according to the wishes and needs of customers. That is called Customer Insight!
So, what exactly is the goal of Customer insight? How to get the right customer insight? I will help you understand the details through this article!
What is customer insight?
Customer insight is an interpretation of customer behavior and trends based on data collected from them. Thereby offering specific advertising and production strategies to improve the quality of products and services and increase sales so that businesses and customers will have benefit.
Customer insight is an interpretation of customer behavior and trends based on data collected from them. Through this, to devise specific advertising and production strategies to improve the quality of products and services and increase sales for businesses and customers.
What is the concept of Customer insight?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of customer insight?
Proper customer insight analysis allows you to see the pattern of buying behavior, thereby building a close relationship with customers, increasing the competitive advantage ahead of competitors.
The advantages of customer insight
Increasing competitive advantage and gaining priority (Early bird)
Researching Insight is good, it is easier for the company to predict future development trends. And from there get many significant advantages. Besides, they can prepare themselves in advance the skills needed to serve customers better and gain a competitive advantage.
Increasing market share
Understanding customers means always putting customers’ needs at the center of all activities. As a result, revenue as well as profit will increase significantly by maximizing sales.
Above all, the company easily exploits untapped opportunities in the market. And if the delivery of a product or service is better than the competition, the percentage of product market share will also increase rapidly.
Change the adaptation strategy over time
The change in business is essential. Customer insight analysis helps determine their current and possible future wishes. From there, the new company can propose changes accordingly.
On the contrary, if not promptly changed, not only the product but also the entire operation of the company will suffer severe consequences.
Time changes and user needs are constantly changing. This requires businesses to know trends and quickly change themselves to retain them.
The disadvantages of customer insight
- Although the parameters recorded from Customer insight are usually expressed as statistical data. But there is always a human element that no amount of data can be interpreted. You should rely on results from 2 types of online and offline data to have the most accurate view.
- Sometimes, users change their interests very quickly. And it may be difficult for companies to keep up with that pace of change. It is very expensive to remove old products and focus on promoting new products. Not to mention profit, in the long run, it is difficult to guarantee.
- Customer insight is not applicable to all types of customers. Businesses can only be used to respond to a specific type or segment of customers. Based on the knowledge gained, the company can adapt to its products.
But somewhere there will still be a percentage of the population or less – people who will not fit in with that change. It is difficult to please the needs of everyone.
Characteristics of customer insight
Customer insight is an interpretation of customer behavior and trends based on the data you have about them. Through which actions can be taken to improve the quality of products and services and increase sales so that both parties (brands and customers) can benefit.
What are some must-have characteristics of customer insight?
It is not the obvious fact
If it were obvious, it would not have been called a tacit truth. For example: Based on Google Analytics, you know that 70% of website visitors are aged from 18 years old to 24 years old. So, you can infer that the majority of visitors to the website are mostly young people.
This is so obvious that it cannot be called customer insight.
It is not just based on one data type
You need to combine multiple sources / metrics / data / categories to create accurate customer insights.
Using a variety of data types helps to draw accurate conclusions from customer insight
For example:
If you only look at the bounce rate (the number of people who visit the website and immediately leave without interacting) on a website to evaluate the content of that page is not good, it may not be accurate.
Because the site can provide full and useful content, visitors who read the content are satisfied and do not need to search or view more information. Therefore, they leave the web always, creating a high bounce rate.
However, if you see bounce rate and time on page to evaluate it will be more accurate. In particular, time on page is considered the time visitors on the page.
- If bounce rate is high and time on the visitor page is high, that is, good page content.
- If bounce rate is high but time on page is low, the page content is really problematic.
Therefore, combining multiple indicators will help you find more accurate customer insight.
Based on that insight, you can take practical action
If it is only theory but not applicable or verifiable, it is not insightful to the customer. Example: Your company has 2 business segments:
- B2B (corporate customers)
- B2C (retail customers).
B2B customer segment is doing well but needs to improve revenue from B2C group.
After studying the B2C group, you draw the perception that:
Retail customers would love to recommend the service to friends and get a commission.
Certainly, you have to set up a referral system to help increase the number of guests and revenue. However, this practice is not possible with the current company conditions. Because of:
- Human resources (too much manpower to manage the system)
- Costs (investment to build referral system)
- Time (6 months to complete the system and put into use)
==> Comments drawn cannot be converted into a specific action. And in fact (wait to talk about good or bad) is not called insight customer. In the end, it is just judgment and thought.
Being able to convince customers to change their behavior
For example: You discover that after buying a laptop, people often buy more computer mouse. From the insight of this customer segment, you can place the mouse you want to sell right next to the laptop product to increase the buying decision rate.
==> If they buy both products, you have changed their buying behavior. (Buy 2 products instead of 1)
Behavioral change must benefit both parties: Brand and Customer
For example, buying a computer mouse and laptop brings value to the buyer and brings a higher revenue to the seller. That means both parties can have benefit. Each user will have their own unique thoughts and behaviors that you need to see beyond the data or numbers.
You also need to understand that:
Customer insight will change with: Time, trends, technology, time / season, age, …
If you only analyze and evaluate based on old behaviors, you will certainly not be able to understand users. Gradually the insight customers you have will be old and no longer accurate.
How to build customer insight?
Here are five basic steps you can take to build effective customer insight:
Steps to build customer insight effectively
- Create a team that specializes in customer insight
- Answer 6 strategic questions raised
- Build a customer journey itinerary
- Conduct a customer insight survey
- Choose the appropriate customer insight platform
In order to perform the above steps, you should arrange working time and make reasonable decisions based on time, budget, scope and available resources.
Building a team of customer insight
If you want to understand customer insight, find potential “teammates” immediately.
Although this requires a lot of analytical skills, the team should not consist only of members with a calculated mind or technical acumen. You also need highly creative individuals.
Because, people have creativity, the ability to interact with users in many different ways and make insightful views in many necessary angles. The team also needs a leader.
This person needs to have an open mind and be willing to make a reasonable action strategy based on the results of the analysis. Customer insights expert Paul Laughlin points out that:
The essential elements that any customer insight team needs to have are:
Overview of customer insight research team
Answer 6 Customer Insight building strategy questions
Like other marketing strategies, building customer insight also includes questions that help you determine which customer focus you’re focusing on!
# 1: WHY – What is your business goal?
Ask your team or superior. What should be the main priority or goal to be achieved in the next 90 days, the next 6 months or the next 12 months?
# 2: WHEN – When is the plan implemented?
- When will you collect data?
- And when will the data be analyzed?
- When will the conclusions from the above analyzes be informed to the relevant departments? And how did the department get this conclusion?
- When will user details be applied to formulate an official plan?
# 3: CONSTRAINTS – What limitations or limitations do you have to consider?
Most projects are constrained by three main factors: Time, Budget, Scope.
Therefore, you need to be creative to find ways to achieve the project’s goals within these limits.
# 4: WHO – What customer segments are involved in your customer insight research?
Which customer segment do you want to learn more about? You need to learn about their buying patterns and online shopping habits. Then you also need to understand why they have such a habit?
Example: A person who buys athletic shoes can because:
- Old shoes have worn out soles and they need a new pair.
- This person may be someone who enjoys playing with sneakers as a hobby.
If you are a sneaker manufacturer, you can distinguish these two objects when they visit an online store. From that learned that they will also have different shopping habits. Buy sneakers that look as trendy as a fashionista.
The other person will look for a more durable, high-performance sneaker.
Here, consumer research will tell you who you are selling to and how to attract them!
# 5: WHAT – What kind of data do you need to collect?
What kind of data will help you reach your previously defined goals? Make sure the data you collect is helpful. Because all aspects of the customer insight strategy depend on this data. If the data is not good, the decision you draw from customer insight is incorrect.
# 6: WHO – Who will be the main implementer and responsible?
- Which member of your team will be responsible for the success of the data collection?
- Who or which department is responsible for using the collected information?
- Most of the collation of this data was done by customer insight software. But you also need someone who can summarize and understand the meaning of this data.
- Therefore, ensure that your team has the appropriate skills and knowledge to handle this data.
- You will need skilled IT people to run the software, manage the database, and get things running smoothly.
- The marketing and product development department also needs experienced members. They know how to apply the customer insights into real team actions.
Build a customer journey map
You are probably wondering: What is a customer journey map?
This is essentially the roadmap of customers following your sales channel, stretching from the first interactions with the brand, through consideration, purchase to maintain product service and spread to everyone around.
Throughout that journey, consumers will join you with many interesting things. These experiences will determine whether they should continue to the next step of the sales funnel.
Customer journey map helps businesses know the “touch points” so as to optimize customer experience
Therefore, you should closely monitor the user experience. By consulting the sales and support department – people who have more direct and close contact with customers to better understand their customer contact points.
For example, the customer support team will tell you who is having trouble using your software or application. You can then forward this to the software developer. And based on that, ask them to come up with a more intuitive interface that will satisfy them.
Conduct customer insight surveys
Once you have completed your customer itinerary, you should focus your survey on specific parts of the journey to be able to better understand his subjects.
Through surveys, users will tell you what they think about your product or service. And which stage is best suited to them. From there, you can propose practical adjustments. At the same time, give consumers exactly what they want.
Customer insight survey
It is certain that once users feel that their feedback is taken seriously. Most likely they will go further on your sales channel. And that is what every business wants.
Choose the appropriate customer insight platform
What is the Customer Insight platform? Customer Insight is considered a great way to conduct surveys and further promote relationships with consumers.
This platform enables businesses to build trust with their customers through extensive discussions which gives many suggestions on where to provide effective products or services.
An outstanding advantage of this platform is that members are very interested in the product or brand. They are willing to propagate that brand. They spread and invited many people to try the product. This is really a good signal for business development.
Word-of-mouth among consumers is twice as likely to succeed as paid ads.
According to McKinsey research
In addition, another study found:
37% of users who come to the business via word of mouth are more likely to engage with the business than other users.
Bonus: 5 tips to help you research customer insight accurately and effectively
Compared to a few years ago, Marketing has had many dramatic changes. Catching up with the latest trends is always a top priority for modern marketers.
But in the battle for innovation, many marketers forget something important. That is they need to really understand their customers.
>> If you really want to grow your business in a customer-centric fashion? You want to understand your customers to provide value to them? Maybe an Inbound Marketing campaign will help you. Try to find out! GTV is also applying Inbound Marketing!
In fact, consumers’ needs, experiences and expectations are constantly changing. Spend time regularly monitoring and discussing issues that are important to users. That is the only way to deliver an experience they enjoy.
In other words, the mission of marketers is to try to listen, adjust as well as respond to the potential needs and wants of customers.
An effective way to do this is through empathy interviews. This process takes quite a while. But the results achieved are extremely worthy. Let’s dig deeper into this technique:
# 1 – Use empathy interviews
Customers rarely know what they really want. That is also the reason why traditional Q&A interviews are not successful.
What is Empathy interview?
To overcome this obstacle, we should use empathy interviews. Mainly focusing on the emotional and subconscious aspects of one’s own actions. You will understand why the person behaves that way.
Use empathy interview to gather information and understand consumers
Purpose of empathy interview
The purpose of empathy interviews is to create a comfortable space for candidates to talk honestly about what really matters to them rather than setting standards and asking them to follow.
The empathy interviews are like a regular conversation, which helps reduce stress and encourages participants to relax to start the conversation softer.
With an empathy interview, the professional interviewer acts as a therapist. They can imagine the interviewer really thinking and feeling from their experience story.
The information collected will show you where your audience is coming from and how they experience the world. Above all, you can identify current and future needs that consumers may need. From there, propose innovative solutions to achieve the goals.
Approach to understanding your audience
Empathy interviewing helps marketers know customer insight.
When you combine this technique with other methods, you will gain insight into who your consumer is and how you can come up with a smart solution to meet their needs.
# 2 – Observe users in everyday life
Observing user behavior in daily life is an authentic approach. This not only shows the products they use but also the emotions and how they use those products.
Observe users in daily life to better understand them
At Procter & Gamble Mason headquarters in Ohio, P&G has set up a laboratory. This lab is used to analyze and take discoveries from consumers to a whole new level.
In a speech about oral health science, ‘Insight Suite’, P&G mentioned a two-dimensional mirror experiment.
This experiment allows the company to track how customers use products in the bathroom and kitchen. Researchers then make it easy to get an idea of how users interact with products and what they use them for.
Collecting this information can help you learn more about the diverse features of the product.
In addition, knowing where products are stored and maintained can also inspire the quality of future products.
# 3 – Consider how consumers buy your products
Paying close attention to users’ approaches and decisions will help you understand their thoughts. But remember:
People do not always know why they do certain things. So, you can interview them about this process.
Consider user buying behavior to determine customer insight
Whether online or in person at the store, take a careful look at each customer’s actions.
- In retail stores, do consumers often just buy or ask questions before buying?
- Do they search for more product information, compare prices with online prices or find a store representative to support purchases?
Defining customer insight helps you better equip the salesperson to deal quickly when problems occur. In the case of online sales:
Currently all websites have installed more sophisticated tools to help you know exactly:
- Which page do consumers usually view?
- How long are they on one page?
- What part of the page are they most interested in?
In particular, Google In-Page Analytics, KISSmetrics and ClickTale are three outstanding tools that allow you to track online customer behavior.
In general, monitoring the process of their purchases can help you understand their thoughts. Specifically, you know what they consider to be important and their credibility with your product.
# 4 – Attend an event or trade show
This technique is especially useful for understanding B2B customers. Especially observing how they position themselves and how they interact with customers. This will reveal awareness and direction for their future.
When observing, please note:
- How often do businesses put experiences into their booth?
- Which image and project do they choose to promote the company brand and sponsors?
- How do employees interact with customers and tell the company’s story?
# 5 – Assessing competitors
Interviewing customers of competitors will:
- Draw an interesting prospect for a company development idea
- Determine exactly the target customers you are aiming for.
Interview and analyze customers of competitors
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent is a great advantage to make a difference for you in the marketplace.
Once you have located a competitor, compare it to other companies in the industry. At that time, you can easily know how much time and money they have invested in new product development processes, new reforms and how they think about leadership. From there, help you determine the exact location of each business.
Conclusion
In short, for a successful marketing campaign, insight customer analysis plays an extremely important role. And this is something that every business must pay attention to. This requires businesses to constantly capture consumer trends. From there, adjust your products and services in accordance with customer insight.
Hopefully, through this article, you have a better understanding of what Customer Insight is and the importance of customer insight analysis. From there you will be able to find yourself the right direction in your online marketing campaigns.
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